Quote Originally Posted by Jeeqbit View Post
Ultimately, you can look for flaws in the story and get depressed about them, or just try to enjoy the fiction that SE is actually trying to tell. Because the story SE was trying to tell was that the Ascians were all tempered like the purple sylths, like most of the Amalj'aa in Southern Thanalan, like those Kobolds that worship Titan until we untemper them and the scions quite literally admit to killing them when Thancred admits all of Ifrit's tempered were put to death and that this is a routine practice.
The story they are trying to tell is exactly what bothers me. That the most horrific, unspeakable acts of savagery were committed for me and instead of horrified, I'm supposed to be touched by that because I'm so special. The horror comes from understanding the point they were making. If I could convince myself she was trying to save babies or stop the world from being eaten or whatever it is that people tell themselves to view Venat as not the most terrifying villain ever written, then I could go back to enjoying my cat girl glamour life. And while I have seen no reading of the text that could convince me that Venat did not condemn an entire species to death because she saw them as inferior, I can sleep more comfortably knowing there is a reading that my WoL was not fully in control of her actions when she aided Venat in ending the Ancients. She was tempered, so so tempered. All she saw was pretty blue eyes and Answers playing in the background and the whole 'wiping out an entire race' went fuzzy in her brain. She wanted to warn the Ancients, but her maker wouldn't allow it, kinda like when Athena forced her Elidibus remake to fight us. My poor, poor cat girl, just another victim of Venat's machinations. I feel 40% better.